To write notes or no notes? (1 Viewer)

[diladial]

Many people have been asking me if writing notes is effective or just a waste of time, because you end up reading the textbook to 'study' rather than those notes. And would you type your notes of hand write them???

Can I get a few opinions???? Thanks.

 

[duhdevitt]

handwrite, just make sure you absorb the content when writing notes

 

[Flop21]

I have no idea how you would study without writing notes...

Notes allow you to have basically a record of the things you need to know - and it's something you can read over and revise - and it will be enough to do well. Textbooks usually have tonnes of excess info - and I've personally never used a textbook to study other than to write my notes.

Don't handwrite your notes. At least that's my opinion. I have no idea why you would hand write them - when typing is more efficient and you get to format everything so you can study more easily and better.

I subconsciously absorb the content as I'm writing. When I write my notes I basically get up maybe 5 different other people's notes and gets bits of pieces of each one to make the 'best' answer in my own notes. This gets me thinking what I need to know and what's relevant. My brain seems to remember this so when I'm in a test or doing work I recognise and remember what I wrote in my notes.

Soo I would just type up my notes. I said to myself I would update my notes every week but have not started on most of my subjects So I suggest start writing if you haven't already because it takes forever if you do it all at once.

 

[Queenroot]

Use someone else's notes

 

[dan964]

depends on the subject

Me personally typed everything. Best thing is to write all the class notes, and then summarise typing up.
e.g.
English - typed
Maths - class notes only
Chemistry - class notes were already typed by teacher anyway
Physics - started typed, most of them ended being handwritten, although a large chunk exist as .jpeg files (as I missed several lessons)
Japanese - vocabulary list in excel, use tables for grammar structures...

GENERAL TIPS
Sciences - yes: since it is based heavily on the syllabus, yes do make notes of every syllabus dot-point. Do past papers
Maths - no: apart from class notes, don't bother. do past papers and questions.
English - optional: put together a couple of good examples (as much as you could remember) and practice essays.
HSIE - yes: most of these subjects are like English in that they require, summaries where possible, practice essays. Depends on what is specified.
Languages - yes: put together a vocabulary list in Excel, or flashcards; and in Chinese/Japanese flashcards/tables for characters. Practice questions
Other skills e.g. Music - no, just practice
Major work e.g. Software. D&T - for software, yes, everything else probably only brief needed, then again depends on the course.
Visual Arts - probably a good idea
Engineering - yes
IPT - yes

That said you can use other people's notes.

 

[Mikasa]

Writing notes helps with memory retention & making info more readily accessible to you. But that being said, for subjects like maths and to an extent history (there's way too much info... might as well write essays & essay plans), making notes can also be a form of procrastination.

 

[astroman]

i am writing most of my notes

 

[Kaido]

Find what works for you. Try no notes for one semester and with notes the other (only if you're in prelim, don't take risks during HSC lol).
I personally never write anything - I just sit in class, absorb information and process what the teacher is saying. Then I go home and grind homework + research concepts + past papers (If i'm bothered).
So yeah

 

[dan964]

I actually recorded lessons...
but I never bothered listening to them

 

[wishingstars]

Personally, I think every student works differently so do what you feel most comfortable with.
I feel most students do it because it feels sort of like a safety net - because sometimes even the best notes you buy from past students might not cover new changes to a syllabus.

For maths, my teacher taught in a way so that we had formulas + examples written in exercise books (so whenever I needed help for particular Qs, I would flip through it) - those were essentially my "notes".
For english, I typed + wrote in class (some people can absorb just by listening but I found it much easier if I was recording something down - even if some of it is useless later on, you may be able to extract useful things later on!)
For chem + legal, I started off making notes and then I stopped (I think I ran out of time later on - but for chem, class + tutor notes worked well enough, and legal - I think I actually should've been avid in note-making. Humanities subjects - I would recommend you make notes because they usually require updated cases, stats etc.

Hope this helps!